New, Free Coupon Application for iPad® Launched by SmartSource: SmartSource Xpress

NEW YORK, March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- News America Marketing, the premier publisher of coupons in the U.S. and Canada, producing over 165 billion coupons annually, today announced the launch of their free iPad® couponing application, SmartSource Xpress (SSX), which is currently available for download from the App Store.

News America Marketing (NAM), a division of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS), publishes SmartSource Magazine, the Sunday coupon insert found in 74 million homes each week, and operates SmartSource.com, a popular couponing website that allows consumers to print coupons at home. The latest product in their portfolio, SmartSource Xpress, is an application that gives shoppers the opportunity to easily find and digitally "clip" coupons with a single tap to get savings on a wide variety of popular household names including: Bertolli Olive Oil®, Brisk® Iced Tea, Campbell Soup Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Comet®, Domino® and C&H® Sugar, Energizer® brand batteries and flashlights, Hartz Mountain pet products, Healthy Choice®, Hormel® branded products, Hunt's®, Kraft Foods, Ortega®, PAM®, Rubbermaid, and Schwan's® Frozen Pizza.

With a tap of the screen, savings are sent to consumers' registered shopper cards and automatically redeemed using Direct2Card™ (D2C) technology at participating store checkouts.  The D2C retailer network is comprised of nearly 4,000 stores across the country and is expected to expand dramatically over the coming year.

"SmartSource Xpress makes shopping easier than it has ever been," said Chris Mixson, President, News America Marketing.  "Not only does the app save consumers money, shoppers no longer need to remember to bring their coupons to the store, checkout time is substantially reduced since individual coupons don't need to be scanned, and savings are easily tracked through the app so users can better manage their budget."

For many years, SmartSource, along with the other major players in the couponing industry, have found success through the traditional method of offering savings through Free Standing Inserts (FSI) – an industry that has grown 34% over the last two years according to recent data from Inmar, a leading provider of promotions management, coupon processing and business intelligence. But with consumers' reliance on technology increasing, the digital coupon industry is expanding even more.  Digital FSIs have grown even faster than traditional FSIs, says Inmar, up 46% over the last two years, as shoppers are increasingly seeking easy savings that can be received with a "click." According to a March, 2012 report by Cheap Sally LLC, 47% of online consumers currently use digital coupons to save money and, according to Forrester Research, it is estimated that 82 million consumers will have tablet devices by 2015, making the timing of the SmartSource Xpress digital coupon app ideal.

"Digital couponing is the future and the iPad represents an excellent consumer electronic platform for us to guide consumers into the future," said Henri Lellouche, SVP, SmartSource iGroup. "Millions of consumers, both young and old, are enrolled in retailer frequent shopper programs, and actively seeking new ways to save time and money, so designing a program that allows shoppers to load coupons directly to their cards seems like the ideal consumer experience."

In addition to coupons, SmartSource Xpress offers brands the ability to present innovative promotions within their offers that will bring to life the previously printed medium using the highest quality digital images. These new features include the ability to show short promotional or instructional videos and to offer free product trial samples, recipes, and other promotional content.  The application's coupons and enriched elements will be refreshed with new offers weekly.

"SmartSource Xpress is just the first of an innovative array of new mobile and digital applications News America Marketing has planned that will bring couponing to a whole new generation of savers," said Mixson.

SmartSource Xpress can be downloaded for free from the App Store(SM).

News America Marketing®, a division of News Corporation, is the premier single-source provider of consumer marketing services in the U.S. and Canada. The company's product portfolio, marketed under the SmartSource® brand name, consists of the first branded free-standing insert, known as SmartSource Magazine®, popular online consumer coupon site SmartSource.com, various in-store marketing products, merchandising services, database marketing tools and online promotions. These products and services allow marketers to deliver a brand message to millions of consumers each month via a network of 1,640+ newspapers/publications* and over 59,550** supermarket, drug, office, mass merchandisers and dollar-store locations across the country, including Kroger, Safeway, Publix, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Staples, Family Dollar and Dollar General.

*   Market list effective January, 2012
** Based on NAM's SSCM; In-store Network as of February 27-March 25, 2012, Auto and Domestic COT effective March 26-April 22, 2012

SOURCE News America Marketing

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